>> all right. today we are talking about -- and i am going to start with you question as always. the question for today is -- why does the u.s. become a global empire? ok. why does the u.s. become a global empire?

and why did the u.s. become a global empire? ok. why did the u.s. become a global empire? ok. i'll start with the first collide here. there is -- slide here. it says school begins. uncle sam to his new class in civilization. now, children, you have got to learn these lessons whether you want to or not. just take a look at the class ahead of you and remember that in a little while you will feel as glad to be here as they are. ok. so it might be hard for you to see. the students are labeled cuba, puerto rico, hawaii, and the philippines. and these are supposed to be students that are names for the states that were already part of the united states. and if you look in the back, this is supposed to be an african-american student

cleaning the windows. an indigenous student sitting at the back of the class and this is supposed to be representing a chinese student. we are already into exclusion of chinese immigration. so that's what it's referring to. this will sum it up what we'll talk about in this classroom. colonialism, so mason can you tell us what it is >> when the power uses the lesser power's resources to enrich the greater power. >> so nations that engage in colonialism are empires and that's what we're talking about today. last class we also talked about progressivism. we talked it as a movement to solve problems. what i'm talking about today is happening simultaneous to this. ok. simultaneous. so this is part of that progressive movement we were

talking about and you'll see some of the same people we talked about last class. so these are presidents we're going to mention in this class and i listed them out here so you can have them for easy reference. remember, teddy roosevelt, one of the progressive presidents we talked about last class. let me give you context. to so -- so the end of the 19th century, this is a period of significant imperialism. so empires trying to gain power, trying to gain more colonies. and then gain the resources and wealth that come from that. all right. so an era of competing empires. so empours are -- empires are competing for power, more colonies and access to the resources and wealth that come from that. all right. during most of that period, the united states was not a nation that had external colonies, right? however, has the united states

been engaging in colonialism all this time? right. so american colonialism has been focusing on indigenous people and, of course, you want to go back to the 1840's, focusing on mexico, etc. ok. so americans are colonizing throughout this period. they are doing it on the north american continent. ok. on the north american continent. by the 1890's. this is a significant decade for what we're talking about today. by the 1890's, a couple of things. we talked about this last class. the growth of industrial capitalism had caused lots of problems. you remember progressives are trying to solve those problems. and we went over a whole list of them last class. you remember that. one of the other big things going on by the time we get into the 1890's is americans are living in a very divided society. so they are divided still with sectional differences from the civil war.

there's political divide. there are class divides. there are racial and ethnic divide. it's a highly divided society. and you know those divides are causing problems. i'll get back to that in a second. also by the time we're into 1890, one famous historian proclaimed that the american frontier was closed. what he was referring to was indigenous land was for the most part by that time colonized. remember when we talked about the dobbs act, allotment, boarding schools, etc. so by the time we're in the

1890's, there's not a lot of indigenous land left to colonized. the question is, will americans stop colonizing or will they colonize somewhere else? and that's what we're talking about today. ok. another thing that happened by the 1890's, american production, the greater than symbol, is greater than american consumption. ok. american production is greater than consumption. so this means americans have surplus goods. and that will in part contribute to the panic of 1893. so you remember panic, our economic depressions. this is the second big one i talked about this semester. this is about 20 years since the last big one we talked about. so this is happening fairly frequently. up until this time this was the biggest economic depression in u.s. history. it was terrible. this is a really severe, lasts

four years. severe economic depression. severe economic depression. that's a big problem, right? and i think i told you in the past it's not uncommon that in the wake of panics, americans often look to colonialism as a way to open up new resources to stimulate the economy. should expect the response here? yes. ok. one other thing. remember there was a class we talked about what worked and who were doing it was changing, this was particularly true for middle and upper class people, especially men. so increasingly american men are doing office jobs. which doesn't sound all that bad. many of you dream of having an office job. but for many people, masculinity has often been built in the united states on physical

attributes and on skill in war. and the last major war that americans had engaged in was the civil war which was decades past by now. so this is not an overwhelmingly large group but it's full of elites who are very loud, all right. so one example is teddy roosevelt who talked about this at length. i put this quote for you. he said in a publication in 1897, there are true influences that shake the vitality, courage, and manliness of the race. if we lose our manly qualities and sink into a nation putting individual gain above national honor and subordinating everything to ease of life then we should reach a condition worse than that of the ancient civilization in the years of their decay. so in other words, states are low. civilizations decay. and advocating very publicly

that war is a way to restore the supposed valued characteristics of american men and preserve the nation in the future. ok. so he's going to be one of the people advocating that war might be great for the sake of war because of what it will do for men in military service. all right. so this list here. i have this bracket. these are problems going on by the 1890's. so what's the solution to them? katie, with you read us a paragraph from page 92 in our robertson reading. >> when americans felt their beliefs were threatened, they dared their enemies to cross it. children on the ground or in their imagination to separate themselves from danger. they gather their friends behind the line by definition. those on the other side of the frontier were enemies. they expected response to the drawing of a line was violent effort to cross it and the line was a dare, a challenge which had to be accepted. the expected response of the -- to the violation of such

frontier line was a violent defense. the american was not fighting merely for a boundary or for a piece of territory but for a primary distinction between americans and others. what was at stake in the drawing of the lines and establishments of frontier was identity, personal, xhunl, national. inside that line americans belonged. everything inside the frontier belonged. inside the line was the community of the american nation. professor edwards: you know how much i love this section of robertson. so robertson talked about drawing lines and in drawing lines americans reinforced their identity because they are behind the line and the enemies of frontier is on the other side. right? we just said the frontier was closed, right? so where will these lines be drawn to bring people together? so there are some people who think that the biggest problem facing americans in this period

is a unified national identity. and some will argue the way to bring americans in a unified national identity is war with someone else. and in this period of empeerial competition war is often and the effort to expand colonies and that's what americans are going to do. ok. so war for colonial expansion will unite americans together in their effort to build that empire but as you know colonials have a cascade of problems that come with it. ok. which is what we'll talk about today. two other things i want to point out, so this idea that colonialism can create a unified nation is a solution to problems for some. so where will this colonial effort look to? it's going to be places that are tied to the united states by sugar. i already put this slide on canvas. so the united states and sugar were intimately tied in this period.

by 1900 u.s. annual consumption was 2.66 million tons, five times the amount consumed in 1866. raw sugar was 12% of all u.s. imports. the single largest import in the u.s. economy at the time. 12% isn't an overwhelming number, right? so sugar is a small part of the overall american economy but as a single unit it's the biggest. 19% of the sugar market was supplied by u.s. producers. this means most of the sugar that americans are consuming is not made by americans, right? so where is it coming from? it's coming from sugar island and this is in this order the sugar islands were americans got most of their sugar in this period in this order. so these are the primary suppliers of u.s. sugar. cuba, in particular, supplied half of all u.s. sugar at this time. in these islands their economies are dominated by sugar exports those booms and busted depending on tariffs.

so if tariffs were lower, it usually consumed, if tariffs were high they had trouble selling their goods in the united states and that was bad for their economies. here's a really good point. i'll come back to this one in a couple of minutes. heightened tariffs in the u.s. blungd in islands -- an island into depression and caused political unrest within it. ok. i'm going to give you some examples of this in a second. ok. so sugar is a unifying commodity that will tie this era together. beginnin in the 1880's, congress started allocating money to help the u.s. navy. this is critical. you can't have an empire in this period in world history and not have a powerful navy. you could argue that congress started laying the ground work for a u.s. empire in the 1880's when they started to rebuild their navy. this will be critical success. no powerful navy, no empire. and then real briefly as we all know, how is colonialism

justified? with the civilizing mission. so the people that are colonized are supposedly what? lesser civilized. lower in the hierarchy. and then the racial hierarchy. and also some people were supposedly less fit to survive based on -- social governance. ok. so you are going to see all of those same justifications used here. so here is my first example of this colonial period. we'll start with hawaii. you haven't seen a map lately, it's still in the same spot.

halfway between the pacific coast of north america and the pacific coast of asia. hawaii. native hawaiians were excellent farmers. ok. native hawaiians were excellent farmers. they were highly productive farmers. so when colonizers arrived in hawaii, starting in the 1770's. when colonizers arrived in the 1770's, they're going to find very produktive -- productive farmland being farmed by native hawaiians who live there. however -- ok. i have a slide -- this slide is also on canvas. we'll go through the list and i'll explain them as we go. ok. another thing that happens, though, when colonizers get there they are primarily visiting hawaii on larger trade routes. so you see people predominantly americans coming from the pacific northwest where they're engaging in fur and hide trade,

traveling to china, and as they stop along that trade route they'd often stop in hawaii. a place where they can get food, resupply their ship. it's a hard journey. it's a rest along the way. by the time we're into the early 1800's, hawaii is a stop in trade networks. hawaii was also an island rich which was valuable in the chinese trade at the time. fur traders bringing fur and hide and travel the rest of the way to china. also, by the time we're in the late 1800's, a super lucrative industry was the whaling industry. it's a big stop in whaling at the time. by the time we're in the 1820's, this is when you see the arrival

of u.s. missionaries. so u.s. missionaries are spreading across both america, north america, and other parts of the world at the time and missionaries are coming to do this work. right. they're bringing civilized areas. they intended to stay. they do this work long term. and other settlers, mostly americans, and they're arriving because they know in is super productive agriculture land. they're arriving because this is super agriculture productive land. we can say the same story about kansas. you see agriculturists arriving. this is settler colonialism. what does settler colonialism need native people to do? go away, right? so the settlers can possess their territory. all right. now the interesting thing is

that native hawaiians were aware this was probably what was happening. and was going on in pacific islands all across the region and they were well studied in the systems of colonialism practiced by the british, the americans, and the french at the time. so what you see happening is in the 1840's and 50's, the hawaiians are fearing invasion. other pacific islands are being invaded and colonized and they feared the same for themselves so they tried to figure out ways to protect themselves. one of the things they're being pressured to do by plantation owners and by missionaries was to divide up hawaii into individually owned pieces of land. ok. because, of course, outsiders felt like that would be a way to buy land, right, if you have individually owned property in hawaii then wealthy owners can buy that land. theoretically yes. the reason why the native hawaiians will adopt a system of private landownership they knew in systems of colonialism usually it's the native people had a system of private property

before the colonization they were often allowed to retain that property after colonization. so they adopted a system of private property. will foreigners be able to buy land? yes. will native hawaiians be able to buy land if they're permanently invaded? yes. this is what they do. they implement systems of government and land reform. and they do this as a way to try to protect themselves long term in terms of landownership. then what happens? u.s. civil war. during the u.s. civil war there is increased sugar production. you see sugar production in the united states disresulted. americans and hawaii start producing a lot more sugar because there is this market that opens up during the civil war. so sugar production in hawaii is dominated by u.s. plantation owners. so american plantation owners that moved to hawaii to do this work and in is when the hawaiian

economy will become increasingly dominated by sugar. the problem is selling hawaiian sugar in the united states involves having to pay tariffs and having to pay tariffs cuts into the profits that american plantation owners can make. so in 1875, there is a u.s. commercial treaty between hawaii and the united states so hawaiian sugar can come into the united states without tariffs. this is a big boost to profits. this is a big boost to profits and as a result they expand production. because they expand so production so significantly in the next decade they'll have japanese laborers to go to hawaii to work on plantations and that's when native hawaiians are outnumbered in their homeland. they're outnumbered by foreigners in hawaii. about a decade later when this treaty is renewed, the u.s. requires a naval base in hawaii,

pearl harbor in honolulu. this coincides with the period when the united states is rebuilding their navy. all right. so you can see rebuilding the navy is going along with having access to ports in foreign places and hawaii will be one of them. all right. and then a couple things happen in the 1890's. in 1890's, congress increased tariffs on hawaiian sugar. this is bad for americans and hawaiians making sugar. you see a major disruption to their economy. 1892, 1893, americans, with u.s. military support from pearl harbor overthrew the hawaiian government at the time, and president harrison supported adding hawaii as territory in the united states. however, congress doesn't get it done before he leaves office. the next president opposes it and hawaiians vocally opposed it. however, they opposed it peacefully. they knew if they used violence to prevent an american invasion,

if an american invasion took place, they would then be deemed enemies and wouldn't be allowed to keep their property. ok. so not only would people die, but their access to property would be undermined. they don't violently resist. and president mckinley will support and congress will annex hawaii as a part of the united states in july. i am going to expand why july 1898 americans will do this. i put this in quotes. annex is almost always the word people use to describe how hawaii became part of the united states. annex generically means acquired without war. ok. annex generically means acquired without war. would hawaiians agree this is a peaceful transition? no. right. they would certainly view it as hostile and aggressive. so annex is a word that comes from the colonizers point of view, not the colonized people's point of view. i'll explain what's going on july, 1898, to motivate adding

hawaii in a second. ok. so hawaii. hawaii went from being a trade colony to a settler colony and that settler colony will become part of the settler's empire. the united states. that's how it worked in hawaii. ok. what's going on in 1898 that makes hawaii part of the united states officially? all right. what's going on there, this is the slide i already showed you. remember the u.s. and sugar slide i showed you? heightened tariffs in the u.s. plunged an island into depression and often caused political unrest. in hawaii, the political unrest was among american plantation owners. sometimes the political unrest will be from a different population.

that's what we'll see in cuba. all right. if you haven't looked at a map lately, here's cuba. here's florida. here's cuba. cuba had been part of the spanish empire basically since columbus arrived so quite some time at this point. we already talked about cuba is predominantly in sugar. also in tobacco production. it is a huge sugar producer at the time. however, sugar prices in the world are declining in the late 1800's so that's bad for cubans. ok. sugar prices are declining by the late 1800's. and everything gets worse in 1894 when the united states raises tariffs on cuban sugar. in 1894, the united states congress raises tariffs on cuban sugar. so that means they'll be able to sell less sugar in the united

states. is everybody with me here? yes, rebecca, good. 1894 tariff raises prices on cuban sugar. all right. and the response was cuban resistance to spanish colonization. that starts in 1895. cuban people had been trying to declare themselves people independent by the spanish for decades at this point. for decades. there had been efforts by cuban people to declare their independence from their colonizer. in 1895, the economic situation is pretty desperate. and therefore, the spanish actually use increasingly brutal tactics. so the spanish use concentration camps for cuban resisters. you know what usually happens to people in concentration camps? they die. that's what's happening here. some estimates say tens of thousands. some say hundreds of thousands of cubans die in concentration

camps. this is also widely reported in u.s. newspapers at the time. so americans were well aware of this. and americans actually identified with this because to many americans this is like americans rising above the british to gain independence. the brutality made it in more ways sympathetic. they were well versed in this. at the same time there are u.s. sugar companies invested in sugar production in cuba. it's not just that americans consume sugar, it's that u.s. companies are actually producing sugar. they're producing sugar in cuba as well. ok. so far with me. ok. in 1898 we have a series of events. in january, ok, who's the president in 1898? william mckinley.

all right. william mckinley. in january, 1898, he sends one of those new naval ships, the u.s.s. maine, to park in the havana harbor in cuba. publicly, he claims the purpose is to protect u.s. investment. ok. a u.s. naval ship parked in the havana harbor in january, 1898, to protect the u.s. investment. people claim that secretly mckinley hoped he could keep the spanish from getting into cuba and allow the cuban freedom effort to actually be successful. they might be able to independently defeat the spanish on their own. but bad news. in february, the u.s.s. maine blew up. over 200 americans die when the

ship blows up. it's very deadly, unexpected and awful. all right. so who did it? who did it? many american newspapers say it must be the british. have you gotten excited right after an economic depression when no one was buying their newspapers when you have breaking news where people will buy their newspapers and it's fun to talk about -- it might be the spanish? yeah, right? today, what do we call that? we would call that fake news. in this era they called it yellow journalism. had to be the spanish. who else was it? we know knew there was a boiler fire in the u.s.s. maine so no one did it. as a result of that and

inflammatory journalism about spain at the time there are many calls in the united states that americans have to retaliate and help defend the cubans from their oppressive empire. that's in why april congress declares war. in april, 1898, congress declares war against the spanish. remember, war is always expensive and has unintended consequences. ok. here we go. all right. so in april congress declares war. now if you know the u.s. has a pretty powerful navy by this time and it's a good thing. they wouldn't have won this war without this. the u.s. army is not well prepared. it has not been reformed in the way the navy has. the u.s. army as you also know was segregated in this period. so you will have famous people, teddy roosevelt.

on horseback. you were led to believe it was filmed during the spanish-american war? technology didn't allow it to be filmed without the photographer being shot so all of the film you see of the spanish-american war are re-enactments that happened in new jersey after the war was over. guess who they don't invite to the re-enactment? the african-american soldiers serving in segregated units. many of the most important victories in the spanish-american war were to the credit of segregated units who had to do the most difficult fighting and do it first. and then groups like teddy roosevelt's rough riders, etc., who will get famous and act as a presidency as a result are a lot of the ones that get a lot of the fame and glory. keep this in mind as we talk about the military over the next few weeks. so war is declared in april. remember in hawaii something happened in july. the united states is at war with the spanish empire. in multiple colonies around the world, including the philippines. all right. if you're going from the west coast of the united states to get to the philippines,

somewhere you could stop on the way is -- hawaii. and that's why in july you see congress and the united states being motivated to officially make hawaii part of the united states. so hawaii's official incorporation in the united states is also in the context of this war. and this war by the way is called the spanish-american war. spanish-american war. all right. by the end of that summer most of the fighting has ended and in october to december there is negotiations between the spanish and americans to end the conflict. what ends the conflict is known as the treaty of paris. it's complete in december of 1898. and the senate will approve it in february of 1899. ok. so the treaty of paris ends the war between the spanish and the united states. ok. in theory, americans joined this war to protect their investments in cuba and to help the cubans

achieve independence. right? americans did it to protect sugar investments and to help cuba become independent. are you with me there? all right. in december, when the agreement of the treaty of paris is made public, what we find out is that the united states also agreed to pay spain $20 million to get the philippines, puerto rico, and guam as colonies. ok. $20 million to get the philippines, puerto rico and guam as colonies of the united states. so is it a war for freedom or is it a war for empire?

depend on who we're talking about. hold on. you might put an asterisk next to cuba. hold on. some americans call this the splendid little war. how offensive. it's short. americans did win. but thousands of people died. in the spanish-american war most sources claim that only 400 american deaths were combat deaths but almost 4,000 americans died mostly from and african-american deaths were more than their white counterparts. there was death and many cubans and spanish, over 60,000 it's believed died in this conflict as well. so it's certainly deadly. all right. remember when i said unintended consequences? so philippines. oh, i forgot this. another perfect of the war -- remember colonialism.

colonialism, one of the goals of having a colonial empire was to unite people at home. one of the official propaganda photos that was released during the war was a picture between a union and confedderate -- confederate who were serving in both wars and they show liberating this one girl that's supposed to represent cuba and these two veterans of the civil war are breaking her bonds of slavery to spain. so to many americans, the spanish-american war is about bringing americans together to liberate supposedly oppressed people. but while americans are at war with spain and cuba, they also send the u.s. navy to the philippines. the philippines had been a spanish colony for quite some time at this point, and the philippines, also a sugar producing colony.

people in the philippines had also been trying to resist and overthrow their spanish colonizers for decades. so you see similar things going on in the philippines that you see going on in cuba. when americans arrived in 1898 as part of the war, they appeared to be allies. so they appeared to be allies of philippine independence. when the americans arrived during the spanish-american war, they appeared to be allies of philippine independence. so in other words, are they they were helping the philippines like they were helping cuba, that is what the local people thought. they thought that until they found out about the treaty of paris, where the philippines officially became a colony of the united states. from 1899-1902, philippine

resistance now transitions to fighting the americans. so here you have what we call guerrilla warfare on the part of the philippine resistance. they are a much smaller force, but they are local, and in many ways they fight the u.s. in ways we are going to also study when we study the vietnam war. a lot about the philippines war is similar to the vietnam war decades later. so in other words in guerrilla warfare i wrote, not splendid. it will be an understatement. whereas the war in cuba went on only on for a series of months, the war in the philippines goes on for years, and it is very difficult to defeat the philippine resistance. therefore, americans will increasingly use tactics that are a problem. so during the philippine war americans will use something they call the water cure. today you call waterboarding to

torture the philippine people to find out who the enemy was. it was also very difficult to tell who the enemy was, because they didn't march around in uniforms. so people that lived in a local village could be the people you were fighting yesterday, or people you will be fighting tomorrow. so what you see is increasingly americans using what we call scorched-earth tactics to burn down whole villages, to try to root out any potential enemies. that might be in them. again, there's a lot of overlap here. another thing is that many u.s. soldiers fighting in the philippines signed up in the context of cuba, so many of the soldiers in the philippines are writing home to their families saying, i don't understand what i am doing here, i thought i was trying to help people like the cubans be independent. the philippines seems to be in the same situation. there are soldiers from kansas in particular who write about how americans are reversing history and turning themselves into the british empire by suppressing freedom movements

that seemed a lot like american freedom movements in centuries past. so this is extremely difficult on u.s. soldiers and very deadly for them. by 1902, they have finally ended the philippine rebelian and -- rebellion and will be a colony of the united states for decades after that. in this war, over 4,000 americans will die. most of them from disease, and some estimates have over 200,000 philippine people dying, most of them civilians, because of the tactics that were used to try to find enemy forces. so it's longer and deadlier. do you need that again? some estimates say up to 200,000, counting civilians, it's very deadly, in other words. after this war ends is when the civilizing mission will start, and that's when american missionaries will arrive. there will be efforts to use

english and teach american cultural values in the philippines. ok. the problem with this, if many americans will publicly say at the time what soldiers in the philippines did, can you have a republican democracy that is also an empire? at the time -- i put this quote on canvas for you -- theodore roosevelt said in a speech he gave in chicago in 1899, the philippines offer a graver problem, their population includes native christians, warlike muslims and wild pagans. many of their people are utterly unfit for government and show in signs of becoming fit. others may in time become fit but a president can only take part in self-government under a wise supervision. we have driven spanish tyranny from the islands. if we let it be replaced by satisfiageage -- savage anarchy, our work is for harm, and not for good. that is a classic justification for colonialism. we say that people we are

colonizing are too stupid to do it themselves. that is the argument. it is that the philippines are not civilized enough, so americans govern. however, this is a big part of the 1900 presidential election. william jennings bryant who had been the popular democratic candidate and talked a lot about imperialism, and in a speech after the election, william jennings bryan said, imperialism is the policy of an empire. and an empire is a nation composed of different races living under varying forms a -- of government. a republic cannot be an empire, for a republic rests upon the theory that the government derive their powers from the consent of the governed and colonization violates this theory. we do not want the filipinos for citizens. they cannot, without danger to us, share in the government of our nation. and moreover, we cannot afford to add another race question to the race questions which we already have. neither can we hold the filipinos subjects, even if we

could benefit them by so doing. our experiment in colonialism has been unfortunate. instead of profit, it has brought loss, instead of strength, it has brought weakness. instead of glory, it has brought humiliation. and they don't vote for him. they vote for mckinley and the colonies and empires remain. so the question is, can you have a republican democracy and colonies? the constitution does not include a description of how you treat people in foreign colonies. in a series of supreme court cases from 1901 to 1905, the supreme court laid out the status of people living in these new, foreign colonies. basically, what those supreme court cases said, is you can either live in an incorporated or an unincorporated territory. in an unincorporated territory,

you are not a citizen of the united states. so in the u.s. supreme court cases from 1901 to 1905, they determined there are two kinds of foreign places, incorporated and unincorporated territories. if you are in an unincorporated territory, you are considered not a citizen of the united states, so the constitution does not apply to you. let's see what happens to each of the colonies long-term. i've also put this slide on canvas. so long-term results for the colonies. all right. hawaii. as you know, hawaii has a large planter-missionary problem, an example of settler colonialism. just like kansas. did kansas become a state in the united states? yes. because they wanted those political rights. same thing happens to hawaii. so hawaii is a territory, and a state in the united states by 1959. so hawaii, of the list we have, was the only one that was

considered an incorporated territory. they were and incorporated territory in 1900. so that is the only one on the list that becomes a state. then the philippines. the interesting thing about the philippines, americans are cuba was super tied up with it. americans consumed a lot of sugar and there was a lot of direct investment there. americans consumed philippine sugar for quite some time, but there were almost no americans or american investment in the philippines at the time the united states acquired it in the treaty of paris. but during the treaty negotiation, the philippines at 17 million people, thousands of islands spread over 1,000 miles. all right. it is a large colony. and it was a colony that was highly desired by other powers. so americans felt like we got it so we should keep it, especially to keep it from other empires. two empires at the time that were interested in that colony,

germany and japan. eventually the philippines after world war ii will gain independence from the united states, that's in 1946. notably, 1946 is when these two empires are no longer a threat. and i will say in world war ii, the philippines suffered lots of invasion by the japanese and lots of brutal violence, so the freedom comes after a lot of suffering in the philippines. as being part of the u.s. empire because of that rivalry. all right, cuba. while americans are at war in the philippines, which goes on for years, the question of what to do with cuba. cuba made much more sense as an american colony at the time, than the philippines does. so the u.s. military does not evacuate cuba after the spanish-american war until they agreed to add the platt amendment to their new cuban constitution. the platt amendment is approved by the u.s. congress and added to the cuban constitution in 1901. all right. let me give you a list of what it has in it.

the platt amendment says the united states can intervene in cuban affairs, especially politics and presidential elections. the platt amendment. the u.s. can intervene in cuban affairs, especially politics and elections. the u.s. can have permanent military bases in cuba, the most famous of which is guantanamo bay. and do americans retain that base to the present? yes, they do. all right. so the united states can interfere in politics, they have a military base, and cuba can make no other similar treaties or negotiations like this with another foreign power. the u.s. can interfere in their politics. the u.s. can have a military base. and cuba can't make this kind of arrangement with any other nation. so is cuba independent? what would the cubans say?

no. is it a colony? is it an unofficial colony? right? at the time, americans called it a protectorate. you know you're splitting hairs when you are coming up with new names for your colonies. it was functioning like a colony. we'll talk about this the rest of the semester. then puerto rico. some people called puerto rico the world's oldest colony, because it has been controlled by foreigners since columbus in -- arrived in 1493. ok. 1493. is puerto rico still part of the united states to the present? and then others, guam and samoa, also acquired during this period, were considered unincorporated and they were primarily important at the time for their naval bases. ok. for the deep water ports they

have. -- let me answer the question from the beginning. it's kind of a long answer so write it down. the question is, why did the u.s. become a global empire? why did the u.s. become a global empire? first, the u.s. has always been an empire. the u.s. was an experienced colonizer. the u.s. has always been an empire. the u.s. is an experienced colonizer. the u.s. was an experienced colonizer. the difference here is these colonies are off the north american continent. ok. so the u.s. has always been a colonial empire. the difference is that these colonies are off the north american continent. just like in the past, americans colonized to solve problems. americans colonized to solve problems.

americans colonized to solve problems. they thought colonization would create unity. americans thought colonization would create unity. they thought it would improve u.s. international promise. they thought it would improve u.s. international promise, by making it now one of the competing empires. and it created economic opportunity for some, especially people in sugar. it created economic opportunity for some, especially people in sugar. and it was justified in the same ways it had been in decades prior. they justified it in the same way it had been in decades

prior. so back to this question here. is a republican democracy compatible with empire? theoretically, no, but practically, yes. contradiction. one of the things we talk about in the class and you might write on the exam, contradiction. contradiction is going to be an unintended consequence of this empire. all right, thank you. and we will read about puerto rico next week, and you will learn a lot more about puerto rico and how this experience goes next week. that's what your quiz will be about.

>> thank you, everybody, for coming out to the library on this absolutely beautiful evening. my name is emily and i am on the events team at the ann arbor district library. we are always thrilled to partner with a variety of bookstores, so thank you so much. we are going to have a discussion here. mark is a professor of musicology and he is going to be joined in conversation by